Modern philosophy in the
Yugoslav territories started with the formation of
University of Belgrade in the early 19th century as a liberal court philosophy, replicating theories of
John Stuart Mill,
Herbert Spencer and other
Western philosophers. They wrote mostly textbook theories about broader subjects such as logic, psychology and pedagogy and the most prominent figure of this period was
Alimpije Vasiljević. At the end of 19th century, this school was surpassed in popularity by
Branislav Petronijević, leading philosopher of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. His idealist rationalist metaphysical system was known as "hypermetaphysics", with his three principal philosophical works being
Principi Metafizike (Principles of Metaphysics),
O Vrednosti života (On the Value of Life) and
Istorija novije filozofije (History of Contemporary Philosophy). Petronijević had many students and followers, among others
Ksenija Atanasijević, the first major female Yugoslav philosopher, who slid into more mystic theories of new
scholasticism. After the
6 January Dictatorship, Yugoslav philosophy as a whole moved towards the political right, with the thinkers such as
Vladimir Dvorniković obtaining positions in the government. Dvorniković was a prominent advocate of Yugoslav
integral nationalism and his most famous work was
Karakterologija Jugoslovena (Characterology of the Yugoslavs). There was also a strong irrationalist current with
Albert Bazala, who became rector of
University of Zagreb in 1932. At the time, universities were under strong religious influence and the most prominent thinker of this school was the Slovenian
Aleš Ušeničnik, a philosopher of
neo-Thomism. In parallel, the social democratic movement had its own prominent theoreticians such as
Dimitrije Tucović and
Sima Marković, who was later killed in the
Great Purge. After
World War II, socialists took power and rejected all former philosophy as idealistic and bourgeois.
Dialectical materialism was introduced, with revolutionary philosophers such as
Boris Ziherl or
Dušan Nedeljković. This theory later evolved towards
Marxist humanism with the
Praxis School, which originated in
Zagreb and
Belgrade during the 1960s. Prominent figures among the school's founders include
Gajo Petrović,
Milan Kangrga,
Mihailo Marković and
Predrag Vranicki. From 1964 to 1974 they published the journal
Praxis, which was renowned as one of the leading international journals in Marxist theory. Apart from Praxis, Yugoslav philosophy was especially strong in
SR Slovenia with the Marxist
Božidar Debenjak and
phenomenological school of
Tine Hribar. In the seventies, the
Ljubljana Lacanian School with the journal
Problemi (Problems) was founded by young followers of the theories of the French
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. A specific feature of the Ljubljana School was to connect the Marxist and Hegelian traditions with Lacanian psychoanalysis and
structuralism, with its most famous philosopher being
Slavoj Žižek. After the
breakup of Yugoslavia, newly formed countries continued their philosophical tradition in various directions, but mostly abandoned the principles of Marxism. ==References==